An Teng's Vesuvius

[Hand of Destiny]

I've been reading Robert Harris' Pompei and it gave me an idea for a chronicle.  The idea would be for a social-political storyline involving the guild, the Lintha (hence my other post on Lintha God Blooded), the dragon blooded and sidereals of both factions.  The idea is that everything will end with a massive volcanic eruption.  The idea is that eventually all the characters petty politicking and intrigue will come to nothing as they will have been outflanked by a much longer game plan with the destruction of the city they are fighting over.  Therein lies the problem as every rock or twig has a spirit in exalted, why does the volcano go off.  Is it some great beast bound under a mountain like the Kukla in the locust crusade (Autocthonians book) or the result of sorcery, Yozi or malfean interference, or the Lintha plan on looting the wreckage.  As I'm not sure who to cast as a villain I'm not sure what approach to take.  Any ideas appreciated.

 

[Flagg]

So you're going to have your characters squabble pointlessly, until such a time as the whole place explodes?


Gee. Sounds fun.


-S

 

[Jakk Bey]

If the factions can unite, and put their differences aside to save the population, and then confront the new threat, it can be an interesting prelude, but if I spent more than two sessions on this sort of thing, and then the countryside blew up, essentially making the previous sessions moot, I'd be pissed.  


I have an ST who has a tendency to yank the rug out from under us all the time. Every time we get any kind of base of operations, any kind of solid base and purpose, we get knocked ass over teakettle and the whole scenario changes.  Sometimes even so far as radically altering the characters to their very core. It is frustrating to put a lot of effort into a character, to get yourself psyched to play a particular character or style of game, and then get  involved in a game, only to have it changed mid-stream.


Same with changing the focus of a campaign--as a prelude, for a session or two, to introduce an adversery that you need help to take down, the above scenario could be interesting, but if you put more than two sessions into this, and then yank it down, you are going to have players who are pissed off.  It's not fair to do that to the players.  The characters in something like Pompeii is a bit different, but unless your players sign up for a disaster flick, then you're going to wind up frustrating them, not to mention get characters who are NOT geared for the real thrust of the campaign that you're planning.  Which will mean a lot of scrambling and it can lead to a lot players feeling that the ST did not deal in good faith with them.  And a lack of trust in the ST is a bad thing for any game.

 

[Silence In Daylight]

There is another possibility, in additin to the four that you listed: the region could be naturally unstable (being on top of a volcano and all), to the extent that even the Solars couldn't completely reshape it. Instead, a group of sorcerer-engineers built a great Essence-engine that is responsible for stabilizing and eventually repairing the instability over many millenlia. After the Usurpation, the machine started to break down, until it was no longer stabilizing the area.


 There should at least a chance for the PCs to avert or minimize the catastrophe; otherwise, what point would there be to playing through the chronicle?

 

[wordman]

The poll has no "Deus ex Machina" choice.

 

[Skari-dono]

I did not vote because what I would have voted for wasn't on the list.  I think it could be very interesting if the Sidereals would have a hand in it.  Not sure how or why, but it would be a very interesting conflict.

 

[Hand of Destiny]

There should at least a chance for the PCs to avert or minimize the catastrophe; otherwise' date=' what point would there be to playing through the chronicle?[/quote']
Okay first off I don't simply plan on pulling the rug out from beneath the players.  I've been thinking about what was a vague idea since I posted and I agree that the PC's should be given a chance to avert disaster.  I think this is really what I wanted from the beginning, hence the need for a villain behind the disaster.  My new idea has the Lintha initially appearing to be the bad guy but they are unwittingly distracting the PC's from the main disaster.  I thought that clues to what is coming could emerge as the story progressed.  Hell my original idea was to have pissed off first age Lunar kicking the Volcano off to destroy civilisation with the dragon blood Pcs racing against time to stop his ritual.  Like I said it was a vague idea to start with.

 

[Jakk Bey]

It's no hoo hoo.  I think that we're just advising a little caution.  We like to joke about ST's being ebbil, and our tufted ears perking up at the mention of PC sorrow, but we're here to build something with our players.  


One possibility too, is that the Lintha know that there is a Spirit trapped under the area--and it's one that the Primordials put down during the last days of the war.  But it's not a volcano Spirit--or rather, the Spirit that is binding the critter beneath is a nasty Spirit of disaster, but it binds a Spirit that would otherwise stabalize the area.  That Spirit rose up during the war against the Primordials, objecting to the misuse of its power, and then Bound by the Primordials, and then when the Primordials made their transition to Yozi, they've been chipping away at the Binding Spirit, warping it, trying to corrupt the Spirit of the land.


The Lintha are trying to bolstor the strength of the Spirit of Disaster--and taint it further so that its nastiness seeps into the other.  When the other is corrupted, the Binding can be loosed, the volcano can blow, and the blasted, corrupted Spirit below can be freed, to billow it corruption across the land, twisting the animals, the plants, and the whole of the land to a nightmare of blight, acting as a bastion for the twisted freaks that it will create, a new stronghold for the Lintha, the Yozi, and the Akuma that they will bring forth.


But they need a corruption of epic scale to complete the ritual. Not just a lot of people, but Exalts must fall to the sway of their dark masters, and perform acts so unclean that it offends the Mandate of Heaven.  In the end, the Lintha are working to corrupt the DB's and the other factions both and egg them on in competition, always secretly backing both factions with advice, always ramping up the odds, always turning the conflict a little nastier.  


This way, the conflict that is prelude has a direct effect on the volcano critter storyline--they have been pawns and used to help boost the whole thing. Rather than just being oblivious, they've been contributing, and the PC's have a chance to sous that out.  And possibly the Lintha agitators.

 

[Hand of Destiny]

But they need a corruption of epic scale to complete the ritual. Not just a lot of people' date=' but Exalts must fall to the sway of their dark masters, and perform acts so unclean that it offends the Mandate of Heaven.  In the end, the Lintha are working to corrupt the DB's and the other factions [i']both[/i] and egg them on in competition, always secretly backing both factions with advice, always ramping up the odds, always turning the conflict a little nastier.  

:twisted: Now that I like.  I could even throw in the seven stranded vine (the local yozi cult) as a red herring/ allies in the plot.  One of my PC's, while a Dragon Blood, has involvement with the guild so this would bring him into conflict with the Lintha initially because of smuggling.  One of the others plays a Cynis who rather stereotypically enjoys a party so he should be relatively easy to entice towards the path of corruption (Hey its just a party! thats how things are done in An Teng) it could also convince him to avoid the obvious (sigh).

 

[The Mad hatter]

i would achully say Fae, if only because thats who most people would suspect to do it, after all, if they are the most ovesious ones trying to do it (possably with a behmoth?) then anyone whos slighty paranoid, would look ealsewere to see whos causing it.


or for a really werid idea, its a small group of the fae doing it with the deathlords goading them into it (claiming it will expand the wyld) while the rest of the fae scramble to stop them, and in the mist of this, the Pirates are just plundering like mad, while the deathlords are using their own forces to cause a little disruption, so that the players have to deal with multiple problems all at once, with the help of fae (quietly in the back giving them a hand, after all, if the PC's wanna stop this.... why do the hard work?).... and if they manage to stave off disaster...... only to have the fae who were quietly helping them turn around at some point in time and ask for re-payment......


keep your players on their toes if nothing ealse.